Introduction

The Summary of the Corporate Business Plan 2010-2011 to 2012-2013 highlights the key information contained in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Corporate Business Plan. More specifically, this Summary reflects our high-level objectives, our priorities over the planning period, and the key operational deliverables intended to enhance our capacity to achieve the outcomes that flow from our mandate. These elements place a stronger emphasis on objectives, priorities, and initiatives designed to serve as the foundation to maintaining a sustainable tax and benefits system in Canada. In short, this Summary represents our way forward.

The CRA is a high-performance organization, providing more services than ever before, to more federal, provincial, territorial, and First Nations clients. Our reputation as a world-class tax administrator and benefits deliverer is rooted in our strong record of performance. Our plans for the future must start with strong core business performance—administering taxes, collecting revenues, and delivering benefits.

Our Operating Environment

Our annual strategic planning process aligns our strategic initiatives with our priorities and enterprise level risks. The following is a review of environmental factors, including business and operating risks, affecting the CRA.

Government Environment

The Government of Canada is in the midst of the roll-out of its Economic Action Plan. This plan has a far reaching impact on the CRA’s operating environment as tax provisions and benefit programs are central to objectives of the Economic Action Plan. Over the medium term, the Budget provides for a review of administrative functions to identify cost reductions and more restrained government spending.

Economy

The global economic recovery is under way, supported by continued improvements in financial conditions and stronger domestic demand growth in many emerging-market economies. While economic growth resumed in late 2009, the recovery continues to depend on exceptional monetary and fiscal stimulus. Based on the average of private sector forecasts, the March 2010 Budget expects the Canadian economy to grow by 2.6% in 2010 and 3.2% in 2011.

Demographic Trends

The current economic downturn has relaxed the sense of urgency surrounding the shortage of labour compared to needs of the Canadian economy as hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost. The next economic recovery, however, is expected to absorb the surplus of labour and we may potentially see a crisis of skill shortage in most developed economies.

We will face significant demographic challenges in the coming years. Despite the CRA's high retention rate of about 95%, the projected gap between retirees and the younger replacement workforce will be demanding in terms of targeted retention and the urgency to adopt knowledge transfer strategies.

Technological Change

Sixty-one percent (61%) of Canadians have reported being online for five years or more. Canadians' experience with the Internet and the emergence of social networking technologies increases client expectations for fast and secure electronic services. The next frontier for the CRA will be wireless technology. We will need to be able to ensure secure access to protect taxpayer information in that environment.

The next major step in the CRA's technological environment will be to further empower our knowledge workers. This will happen through intelligent risk-model driven workload selection, enterprise content management, workflow management, and collaboration tools to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. The challenge will be to develop the tools best suited to the CRA and integrate them into our complex infrastructure.

Our Corporate Risk Inventory

Date modified:

2010-05-06